Showing posts with label fun stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun stuff. Show all posts

Hopes, Fears and Obama. The Web Site.

11/15/2008 04:03:00 AM

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There is a new website dedicated to chronicling the hopes and fears surrounding Barack Obama called “Barack Obama Presidency:  Hopes and Fears”.  Users can view and submit ideas on hopes and fears and vote on which they share.  It’s all totally anonymous (other than maybe recording your IP address… big deal).

Its a really interesting look at both sides and lets you know that you are not alone with what you hope and/or fear.

Some of the fears include:

  • He will become a dictator.
  • He will weaken US defenses.
  • He will send this country into civil war.
  • He will find himself in over his head.
  • He will turn this country socialist.
  • He will change his mind more often than his underwear.
  • He will increase taxes so much that the US economy will suffer.
  • He will make community service “voluntary-compulsory.”
  • He will show US weakness to the terrorists around the world.

Some of the hopes include:.

  • We’ll pull our troops from Iraq.
  • He will restore America’s standing in the world.
  • Improve image of the U.S. around the world.
  • He will rescue a puppy from a pound.
  • We will finally hear the word ‘nuclear’ pronounce[d] correctly by the US president.
  • He will speak in complete sentences.
  • He will work toward granting gay people equal rights throughout the country, and help overturn same-sex marriage bans that already exist in several states.
  • He will quickly learn not to negotiate with terrorists.
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Misery Index

NBC Revokes SNL Skit, Then Republishes It... Edited. [LAME and BUSTED]

10/20/2008 09:08:00 AM

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hulu-nbc I'm a little late on this one however.. better late than never.

A Saturday Night Live skit lampooning the mortgage bailout that I believe aired on October4th was yanked from the Internet by NBC shortly after being aired, and then republished in an "edited" form.

The skit correctly pointed out that the Democrats blocked oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when President Bush and the Republicans warned them there was a problem coming.  And the skit also mocked Herbert and Marion Sandler and George Soros (Soros "Official" Blog), three of the super rich Democrats the bailout is going to help, among others.

NBC was removing the unedited clip no matter where found on the Internet, from Hulu (which was an official release by NBC), YouTube, and personal websites and blogs, and also removed comments associated with the clip the next day. 

It seems now that NBC has re-hosted the video on their website however, there seems to be a "change" in the newly released version by NBC.

nbc001In the original video, there is the Sandler couple who, in real life, actually profited off the subprime crash by turning their investment from $17 million into $24 million by running a company which marketed subprime mortgages, and then bundled them into securities to sell to banks such as Wachovia, which of course went bust.  During this skit, while the "Sandlers" were speaking, the statement of "People who should be shot" was shown below as a footer.   In a transcript of the original unedited video, Herbert Sandler states "And thank you, Congressman Frank, as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities."

PELOSI:  This is Herbert and Marion Sandler.  Tell us your story.

HERBERT:  My wife and I had a company which aggressively marketed subprime mortgages, and then bundled them into securities to sell to banks such as Wachovia.  Today, our portfolio is worth almost nothing - though at one point, it was worth close to $19 billion.

PELOSI:  My God.  I am so sorry.  Were you able to sell it for anything?

HERBERT:  Yes, for $24 billion.

PELOSI:  I see.  So in that sense, you're not so to speak, actual victims.

HERBERT:  (chuckling):  Oh no.  That would be Wachovia Bank.

MARION:  Actually, we've done quite well.  We're very happy.

HERBERT:  We were sort of wondering why you asked us to come today.

MARION:  Anyway, it's delightful to see you, Nancy. (Kisses Pelosi.)

HERBERT:  And thank you, Congressman Frank, as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities.

FRANK:  Not at all.  [...]

09sandlers-500 The real life Sandlers, who use their wealth to finance a variety of nonprofit organizations such as the Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACORN,  are infuriated over the skit

Sandler, 77, spoke to the Associated Press in the San Francisco office of his family's charitable foundation the morning after NBC's "Saturday Night Live" broadcast a skit deriding the Sandlers as predatory lenders who had duped unsophisticated borrowers and Wachovia, too.  A caption shown during the sketch skewered the Sandlers as "people who should be shot."

Although the timing of the interview was coincidental, Sandler was seething after watching a replay of the skit on the Internet.

"I have been listening to this crap for two year," Sandler said.  "We are being unfairly tarred.  People have been telling us to speak out for some time, but we didn't think it was appropriate.  That was clearly a mistake."

nbc001 The video was re- released by NBC with the statement above in red being removed from the newly posted NBC video.  Additionally during the skit,  the statement of "People who should be shot" that was shown below as a footer, was also removed.

On October 5th, a Los Angeles Times article addresses the issue of the removal of the video and a response from NBC.

The skit, a parody of a C-SPAN news conference, ridiculed subprime borrowers, housing speculator and Herb and Marion Sandler, the real-life couple who built Golden West Financial into a subprime lending powerhouse and sold it to Wachovia before the subprime collapse.  At one point in the skit, the Herb Sandler character says he made $24 billion off the subprime boom.  Graphics then appear labeling the Sandlers as "People who should be shot."

"Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn't meet our standards," a spokesman for the program said in an e-mail message today.  "We took it down and made some minor changes, and it will be back online soon."

Ed Lasky recently reported on how the Sandlers - allies of left-wing billionaire George Soros - helped bring down Wachovia Bank:

Herbert and Marion Sandler, a New York lawyer and Wall Street analyst respectively, bought a small California thrift in 1963 and built it into GDW - one of the largest thrifts in the nation.  The company's business was built on adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs).  These were mortgages offered at low "teaser" rates that ratcheted upward as interest rates increased.  They were often sold aggressively to unsophisticated home buyers who did not comprehend the vast financial risks they were taking, or who assumed that housing prices would rise high enough to provide a profit to them when they sold their houses.  They were targets for lenders peddling mortgages that should have been stamped with a skull and crossbones, for these were among the most seductive and dangerous types of mortgage.

This book of business is the core reason for Wachovia's current difficulties.

The Sandlers knew their business far better than any other person could.  Not only were they the founders and major owners, they famously ran the company as a husband and wife team for all these years.

So why did they happen to cash out at precisely the right time?  Did they see the handwriting on the wall, realizing the massive risks inherent in the mortgages they originate throughout one of the most overheated real estate markets in the nation's history?  They are not talking, but when smart people cash in some of their chips, it's rarely a good time to bet against them.  Nevertheless, Wachovia bet 24 billion dollars and lost big time.

The collapse was primarily caused by the GDW purchase, which became an albatross around Wachovia's neck soon after the purchase.  "Wachovia found itself in ARM's Way" was the headline  of a recent Wall Street Journal article.  A huge percentage of these Wachovia ARMs were made to deep subprime borrowers with very poor credit scores.  Most of these were "inherited from its ill-timed acquisition of Golden West" at the end of the housing boom in 2006.

The Sandlers have started to invest their billions of dollars politically, in the manner of George Soros, sugar daddy of many far-left wing groups and an early and prominent supporter of Presidential candidate Barack Obama.  Soros has developed an empire of so-called 527 groups, putatively independent political activists groups that have influence within the Democratic Party.  These 527 groups include the Center for American Progress, MoveOn.org, Human Rights Watch, Media Matters and a slew of other like-minded groups...

Soros, Lewis and the Sandlers form a core group of billionaire activists and Democrat partisans who have formed a group called The Democracy Alliance.  They realize that they could magnify their power by working in unison and tapping other wealthy donors to further their agenda

(the superb Boston Globe article “Follow the money” is a good primer on how money and 527 groups have come together to have a huge impact on politics in America).

The Democracy Alliance is a major avenue to help them achieve their goals. The roster of its growing membership consists of a list of billionaires and mere multi-millionaires who collectively hope to give upwards of 500 million dollars each year to further promote a left-wing agenda. A partial roster of the Democracy Alliance membership can be found here.

Half a billion dollars a year can purchase a great deal of influence.

The Sandlers certainly know quite a bit about leverage from their savings and loan days.

Among the beneficiaries of their largesse: Air America, ACORN (a group that has very close and long lasting ties to Barack Obama and has a long history of engaging in voter fraud. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (basically a private detective group focused on the private faults and foibles of Republicans), Media Matters, a media watchdog group that engages in harsh partisan attacks against media figures and articles it considers supportive of Republicans). The list goes on and on.

They are not merely out to elect Democrats, but to also permanently realign U.S. politics and shift our society and culture in a far-left wing direction…

The website snlbailout.com, has followed the updates on this video, and hosts the original unedited video on their website and the edited version or just the portion of the video that was eventually edited, in unedited format.

Michelle Malkin has a transcript of the original skit on her website.

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Governmentium, Capitalium and Administratium

10/10/2008 10:04:00 PM

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0-washington-dc_master A major research institution (MRI) has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest chemical element yet known to science.  The new element has been tentatively named Governmentium.

Governmentium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.  These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since governmentium has no electrons, it is inert.  However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.  A minute amount of governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to four years to complete when it would normally take less than a second.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 - 6 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.  In fact, governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration.  This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.

Governmentium is also sometimes mistaken for Administratium as they are the exact same thing however, at times the Governmentium has known to become toxic at any level of concentration and easily destroys any productive reaction when it is allowed to accumulate, thus the different name.  The element becomes extremely unstable when catalysed with money.  This nearly always results in the element radiating just as much amient energy, including a warming of oxygen, since it seems to have half as many peons, but twice as many morons.  Attempts are being made to determine how Governmentium and Administratium share a relationship and how Administratium can be controlled to prevent irreversible damage, but to date, results have not been promising.

Further research revealed that Governmentium also occurs naturally alongside Capitalium, a lighter, but more numerous element.  Capitalium is compromised of a cloud of entreprenions, which are attracted to a core of opportunium, which was made stable by emissions from Governmentium.

Over time, Capitalium produces emissions of money, some of which is absorbed by nearby Governmentium.  Capitaliums will thus try to move as far away from Governmentium as possible.  But most of this money is transmitted between other Capitalium in what is known as the venture band.  These oscillations of money produces economyetic radiation, which attracts more entreprenions, and stimulates peons, but also attracts negative elements such as greedions and slackhyons which have been shown to have the temporary effect of increasing the flow of money into the venture band, which increasing their own energy.

However, as the flow in the venture band increases, the greedions and slachyons reach critical mass, and the flow of money becomes unstable and suddenly reduces dramatically.  Capitaliums spontaneously split from their now depleted Opportunium and evolve into Spend 0 particles, refusing to bond to any more Opportunium.  Any free peons in the region become immediately inert and begin to decay, but sometimes during the decay process, they are absorbed by Greedions and/or Slackhyons, forming anti-Entreprenions, which have the effect of destroying any Opportunium they come in contact with.

The state of all effected by this remains unstable for a time until the depleted Capitaliums begin to more closer to Governmentium.  When this happens, Governmentium undergoes a shift and emits a radiation known as bailout, which has the effect of released vast amounts of stored money in the venture band into Capitaliums.  This restimulates the Capitaliums and they once again begin to emit economyetic radiation, and also move away from Governmentium.

Interestingly, Governmentium can be formed by either the fusion of peons, or the fusion of Capitaliums.  However, these two types of Governmentium have different spins, which manifests itself through their interactions with Medium, a type of Capitalium, which has the ability to pick up Governmentium and Capitalium spin, and then broadcast it to nearby peons.

There is a controversy on this however, as many people seem to think that there is confusion between Capitalium and Corporatium.

Corporatium is the heavy element as described, while Capitalium is a catalytic metal also found in all naturally-occurring Governmentium and Corporatium alloys.

Within these new discoveries, one other heavy element was recently found to naturally occur in the above reactions.  It has been named, Ublamehium

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Misery Index

"ZERO" Dollars

10/09/2008 12:59:00 AM

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zero_dollar On CNN today Laura Gilberts "Mad as Ever" segment showed a woman who had designed a "Zero Dollar" and was passing out free signed and numbered originals of the print.  Basically it was a publicity stunt for the artist, Laura Gilbert, as she has an upcoming exhibition at The Grady Alexis Gallery in Manhattan, opening October 24th.

She calls "the current economic calamity" the reason for her creative protest which she started working on after the fall of Bear Starns.  She sees the dollar bill as "symbolic of America's stature in the world." As a reflection of the crisis in the financial markets, she has tried to lower the monetary value of the print itself to zero by creating a very large edition of 10,000 of the prints.

So I decided to take a look around "the internets" and "the Google" to see if I could find anymore zero dollars.  I came up with quite a few.

Cildo Meireles, a Brasilian artist, has his own version of a "zero dollar", which he did in 1978.

MeirelesFront MeirelesBack

 

The source of the next "zero dollar" is Brian Romero from Hollywood, CA.  He posted this bill clear back in June, 2008.

worthless_color

 

This "zero dollar" was found on Flickr.

zero_002

 

A Hillary Clinton "zero dollar" was found on eBay.

 

z003

And an Obama "zero dollar" was also found on eBay.

cm0200

Oh, and how could I forget Jeanne Moos's segment?

SOURCES:

PICTURE SOURCES:

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Misery Index

Tackling the Budget - The GAME

10/01/2008 08:17:00 PM

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Time for a bit of fun instead of all the gloom doom. What if, you had complete and total control of the budget of where the tax dollars go? Try "Budget Hero". This lets you chart a course to economic liberation.

You can play as either presidential candidate, a treehugging hippie, a hater of defense spending, a big business guy, a medicare moderator, or any number of other outstretched hands in the national budget.

See if you can help this failing economy by your own ethics, values and morals.

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Misery Index

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